Free Reading Library – what is it?

This weekend I started to play around with this dream I had. The dream was based off of The Planet of the Apes sort of world. I may have watched it near the time I had the dream, I don’t remember.

There are many times I have those dreams where it simply stays with me. The idea is too intriguing or I’m curious as to what will happen. Often I save the dreams. Instead of saying “I dreamt of this last night” as I used to, I write them as story plot ideas. Then later on I develop them. The trouble? There are so many of them on top of ideas that I do develop that I willnever write them.

Or as this dream came about, it comes off of the premise of a franchise that does exist and I don’t really want to develop it for publishing because it’s not my original idea. It’s not necessarily a fan fiction piece but somewhere in the middle in that gray area.

Many of my dreams do develop into their own novels and/or series.

Many more are left behind in never land.

This weekend I started to play with the dream I had because this one just doesn’t go away. I wrote it out in Word while Mila (my yr old Doberman pup) is recuperating from her spay surgery. I began typing like any other of my stories, then I said . . . wait. What if I did this? Raw, unedited, and slowly progressed the tale as it developed, but shared on my site as I went?

Right now there are some out there balking at the idea of a writer sharing first draft, unedited work. Well, this is me. I have plenty of work that I spend a lot of time on, charge for, and ensure it’s as perfect as it can get before publishing. Later on, I can take the original ideas I do this way, edit them like crazy, ensure they are to the best of my ability, then publish them. But as a writer I am constantly playing with ideas, writing, and this is how a writer practices. By writing. A lot.

I’m totally fine with people seeing me without makeup. I’m also totally fine with people seeing my writing without editing. Too many out there let things like that hold them up. This is free. This is first draft. This isn’t perfect. It won’t be perfect.

Too many out there concern themselves with mistakes and never end up finishing their work. Maybe I can also show them that a writer isn’t great in the first draft. Plot holes will come, stories may get abandoned because they die. Finishing it and having it to edit is more important. After all if you don’t have something to edit, how can you make it better?

But this is interactive too. If you’re curious about a character and wondering something in your head, leave it in the comments. Say, “I’m really curious what Tim is up to. Why would he such and such?”

Or if you think you know where something is going, “I bet you Tim does such and such.”

I don’t need help in developing a story. It’ll happen as it happens, but it’d be interesting to see if what you’re thinking happens, won’t it? So I welcome those comments. Or the critiques where you notice something happening too much. Again, this is raw first draft so there will be mistakes, but I’m open to any thoughts you wanna leave. Don’t be shy.

I’ll warn you. If it’s just to tell me this is a stupid idea or I shouldn’t do this? That sort of comment will be deleted. Don’t tell me what to do. Offer suggestions in the form of questions, offer thoughts, post questions you have about the story or a character, discuss a comment or thought with another commenter. Don’t criticize for the sake of criticizing.

There will potentially be multiple stories going at once so this isn’t scheduled, daily, weekly, etc. This is as it comes, as free time opens up.

And they won’t just be here. My Sorceress series has been in the waiting room forever. I’ve been playing with simply posting it chapter by chapter on its own website. So that may be included here too. Then when done, I’ll edit, and publish. That has MANY parts to it so that could go on for a long long time – as in years.

You’ll be able to find all links in the blog sidebar and in the nav bar once they’re public.